Ornamental cut flowers and foliage are familiar items of commerce being sold world wide. The majority of these is perishable and has short shelf lives. When the growers are situated a long way from their markets, which is true for most of the trade, it is essential to transport the plant product by air freight. However, the low stability of the cut flowers makes many plant products uneconomical in view the high cost of air freight. The plants suffer from dehydration, infection, and aging due to evolution of endogenous ethylene gas. Various techniques have been described for increasing shelf-life of the cut flowers, often comprising toxic materials, or materials difficult to handle. WO 2005/079569 relates to extending the shelf-life of the cut flowers by contacting the plant with a composition comprising nanocrystalline silver; US 2004/0186020 relates to spraying acrylic latex containing a plant nutrient onto cut plants. The intended use of the considered products, namely items of aesthetics serving as gifts, would be contradicted by the presence of harmful or staining, or otherwise unpleasant, materials. So, it is desirable to avoid, for example, dark silver stains, or a release of toxic substances, or the presence of unpleasant odor associated with acrylic emulsions. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an efficient and simple method for increasing the storage time of the cut flowers, without conferring to the flowers unpleasant odor.
It is another object of this invention to provide a protecting composition for applying onto cut flowers, enabling long-term storage, without conferring to the flowers unpleasant odor or other annoying properties.
Other objects and advantages of present invention will appear as description proceeds.